Regularly updated blog charting the most important albums of the last 50 years

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

101. The Electric Prunes - I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) (1967)

Track Lisiting

1. I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)2. Bangles3. Onie4. Are You Lovin' Me More (But Enjoy It Less)5. Train For Tomorrow6. Sold To The Highest Bidder 7. Get Me To The World On Time 8. About A Quarter To Nine 9. King Is In The Counting House 10. Luvin' 11. Try Me On For Size 12. Toonerville TrolleyReview

Some psychadelia here, and I've really been enjoying all the trippy music lately. So the Electric Prunes, their street cred isn't as unimpeachable as other stuff we've had here, in fact they didn't write most of their songs and the album is quite inconsistent, going from Jefferson Airplane to Beach Boys in the space of two songs.

Still, they did instill their music with a very particular way of performing, and in that they are great. All the songs here are brilliantly performed, but one stands head and shoulders above the others and that is the title track. This track is also fortunately the first one, so if you are lacking in the commitment it makes it easier to turn off your player. But you shouldn't as the rest of the album is actually quite good.

The use of what sounds like a balalaika on Sold To The Highest Bidder is a great novelty to this album and the more psychadelic tracks are really worth it. However there are some tracks here which give me a hard time understanding if they are tongue in cheek or the Electric Prunes aren't very discerning. I am betting on the first one as most tracks show a certain darkness to their sound which can only contextualise the tamer tracks as a bit of a joke.